And I think to myself "What a wonderful world"...

So today was the one year anniversary of my first date with Wes.
Wes is my partner in the couple that asked me to move in them, Gina is his wife and my very good friend!
By the way, when I post at 3am on Friday morning and say "today", what I really mean is "Thursday" because I haven't gone to bed yet.

Those are the top three things you needed to know to enjoy this post. I guess, I'm not going to assume or assign what people need to enjoy anything really.

Today was awesome! I am constantly reminded of what a charmed life I live. I met Wes in Center City to celebrate our Anniversary, we went to Little Pete's where we had our first date. We had a nice dinner, we each got specials which meant that our meals came with soup, salad, and dessert, and our check was only around $30 including a root beer float, a chocolate milk, a cup of coffee, and a cup of tea. Now's a good time to mention the extreme dichotomy of my taste. I am both extremely easy to please and have high standards for details. I love a greasy cheesesteak from a truck but I also love a really good steak. I own a lot of cheap jewelry that kids would wear but fall all over myself for Tiffany & Co's diamonds. The point is, a $30 meal for two makes me really happy, whereas going to Ruth Chris' and paying $40 for a steak with no sides included will induce an anxiety attack (yes, that sort of happened. A tale for another day). If you're wondering what two people who have seen each other almost every day for the past year have to talk about, we were bouncing around ideas for burlesque shows.

Then we moved on to the Good Dog Bar, still sticking to the 'first date' guideline. The Good Dog Bar will always have a special place in my heart because on our first date, Wes kissed me there for the first time. Kissing in the middle of the date, rather than the end when you're saying good-bye, was an experiment Wes was trying out from a web comic. The results of that experiment were positive, first he managed to flatter me into silence, no easy feat as I never shut up! He proceeds to get up, approach me, and deliver a fantastic first kiss.
I cannot fully express how important good kissing is to me, and after managing a relationship involving insufficient kissing, I have sworn to never be anything but "good and kissed" ever again. Bonus points for you if you get the reference.

Anyway, after this wonderful kiss, Wes sits back down, grinning at me in the wonderful way that he still does, and I consider it quite safe to say he enjoyed himself. And marvel of marvels, I was still speechless! And trying to hide the fact that I was blushing in my red hooded sweatshirt that I wear constantly from October through May. Today had the added benefit of teaching me that not only does Wes love me, but to some extent loves that sweatshirt too, because after not seeing it the whole summer he said he "missed it" because he saw it so often when he started dating me. I'll have to tell you some other time about that sweatshirt, the story doesn't belong in this entry, and I'm only saying "I'll tell you about it later" so I'll remember to tell you, not because I get some sort of entertainment from making you wait. Moving on.

Tonight, as we do most Thursday nights, we went to karaoke and a wonderful time was had by all. Gina is a very talented singer who is made all the more entertaining by the group of friends who choose to be her back-up singers/dancers while she sings Total Eclipse of the Heart. The married couple that Wes and I are seeing have also started joining us at karaoke, as well as another engaged couple that Wes and Gina are seeing (I carry a chart around with me to illustrate for newcomers). I suppose that until I have permission to use people's names, they will be listed as Boyfriend/Girlfriend  + Letter. For example, if I were being private I would be Girlfriend J. The groupings consist of the married couple Girlfriend A & Boyfriend Z, and engaged couple Girlfriend G & Boyfriend S. Let's see if I'm smart enough to put a chart into my blog, probably not.

A former coworker was present at the bar tonight, she knows that I am with Wes, that he and Gina are married, and that we are polyamorous. This information does not keep her brain intact when she sees me kiss Boyfriend Z, but patience is crucial in this scenario, she is from a small town, not from the USA, and is old fashioned about this kind of thing. I am relieved to say that my friend's discomfort about the situation is the only setback for the whole evening.

Boyfriend S introduced us to a friend of his who is new to the Poly scene. Wes and Gina have been embassadoring for Poly so much since they met me, I have not done much myself. So I was glad to sit and have a really satisfying conversation with him about how the group, and being polyamorous, functions. He said it was kind of amazing to see it all working right in front of him, for it to be alive in the real world rather than being explained in a book. That's the magic of it all, the colors of this fantasy are brighter and the flavor of it is sweeter in reality. We're all there, having a great time, getting to be exactly who and what we are, without anyone pulling the wings off the fairies or crying out "Witch! Witch! Burn her!" That's why it's a charmed life, this is the second bar we've brought the group to, and nobody says a word about what we're doing. No one whispers and stares or makes us feel unwelcome. Overall, this community we've been building for ourselves. it's a nice big gingerbread house to live in. Hopefully, we'll see more of Boyfriend S's friend; hopefully everyone will keep bringing their friends, because that is how we'll make it a wonderful world for people living alternative lifestyles, by being seen.